People do good because they are
human,
not because they are religious!

Do not give God any credit for the good they do, they did it!

SWEARING AND TAKING OATHS

My comments in red.

Matthew 5:33-37 (NKJV) goes:

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear
falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’

34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s
throne;
In other words you insult God's throne by swearing.
The implication is that swearing is always disrespectful.

35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; You
insult his footstool by swearing. nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of
the great King.
It is up to the king to tell you what to do, swearing by
him or his city implies they are under obligation to back up what you swear to.

36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white
or black. In other words, only swear by what you have full
control over. So that excludes God. Since you have no full control
over anything it follows that you must not swear.

Some in those days when they took oaths would have
sworn religious oaths by things other than God. They might swear by Heaven or
somebody’s grave. Jesus is saying that will not do for the things are so
connected with God that swearing in the name of God is still involved. You
cannot swear by your head for you cannot control the colour of a single hair but
God can so to swear by your head is indirectly to swear by God.

Jesus talks as if he contradicts the rule. He does
not. He only says you must be so truthful that it will not be needed.

37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more
than these is from the evil one. No doubt this is
all meant literally.

The Quakers and other groups are right to condemn the Protestant and Catholic
approval for taking vows and oaths.

Priests take an oath never to marry or to tell what they hear in confession.

The pope takes an oath to safeguard the whole faith.

Catholics are condemned for the sin of perjury should they lie in court.
But according to Jesus, telling the truth under oath is as evil. If
you cannot be trusted and you need to swear then there is something hypocritical
about oaths.

Though you swear on the Bible in court, this is not really an act of
deference to religion but an insult to it. Yet it is disguised as respect
for religion.

It is extremely evil of the Catholic Church to say that a person who swears a
false oath should suffer for it forever in Hell. It cannot teach that it
loves such persons and hates their sins and keep a straight face.

It is said that though beliefs such as that God will reward you if you keep
your word etc are helpful for you will probably keep your word and make those
who you make the agreement with feel more secure. Belief in God enables your
promise to be secured. But there is a dark side to all that. It
implies threatening consequences should you not keep your word. How do you
measure if it is all worth it? You cannot. And do you want to hold
that believing such things about God is good? It is not for it implies
people should believe whatever nonsense makes them behave themselves. That is
dangerous and denies people the proper chance to be spontaneously good.

In court you need to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth. Austin Cline writes, "Usually they swear an oath 'to God' and with a hand
on the Bible. Such scenes are so common that most people seem to assume that
it's required, but it's not. You have a right to just 'affirm' that you will
tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No gods, Bibles, or
anything else religious need to be involved." Jesus seems to have put this
teaching out in his own way.